Australian Doctor Banned For Prescribing “Gay Cure”

Today it’s been reported that an Australian family doctor has been banned from practicing after prescribing a drug to “cure” a young man, referred to in findings as “patient A”, of his homosexuality.

Dr Mark Christopher James Craddock was recently severely reprimanded by the New South Wales Health Care Complaints Commission for prescribing the drug Cyprostat, a testosterone blocking drug used to treat prostate cancer to an 18 year old male after a 10 minute consult from his own home.

Most disturbing is that Dr Craddock did not examine, counsel or offer referral to a psychologist before he issues a prescription that would switch off the patients sexual drive. Dr Craddock did not explain that this medication required specialist consultation and that its use could lead to damage of the liver or other side effects of reduced testosterone such as osteoporosis, depression and changes in metabolism.

Dr Craddock was was a member of the Exclusive Brethren church and his medical practice had a high number of other church members. Dr Craddock’s formal training was in radiology, however he ran a family practice out of his own home. Patient A was a member of this church and in the formal hearing documentation Dr Craddock admits that the consultation had been organised by a member of this church.

In disturbing testamony patient A reports:

“Until last year, I was a member of the Exclusive Brethren. Dr Mark Craddock was (and still is) a member. I came out as gay around two years ago, at 18 years of age, and was informed by a leader that there’s medication you can go on for these things. He recommended that I speak to Dr Craddock on the matter with a view to my being placed on medication to “help” me with my “problem’. Following this recommendation, I was taken by a member of the church to visit Dr Craddock on the fifth of February 2008.”

On the 23rd of August 2012 Dr Craddock was found guilty of unsatisfactory professional conduct. While Dr Craddock is no longer able to work as a family doctor he is still able to continue work in radiology however his ability to prescribe medications has been greatly limited.

My biggest concern is that a trained medical professional was able to be so greatly swayed by a church that he would choose to chemically castrate a young man. As I reported in my article Doctors In The Dark, there are still many homophobic doctors who are happy to voice views contrary to medical evidence. Cases like these leave me cold. Let’s hope there are less of these doctors than I imagine.